jenbuFL
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2014
- Messages
- 68
I have read tons of trip reports and I'm happy to say it my turn-yay!
I won't be able to tell you everything we did each day but I will hit the highlights.
After a short drive from Jacksonville we parked at the garage and filed into the terminal. We had a PAT of 10:45 so as soon as we got checked in we waited about 2 minutes and then it was our turn to board.
We hit Cabanas and then the Aquaduck. At 1:30 we went down to deck 8 to check out our room. Once my 8 year old learn there was on demand movies he never wanted to leave the room. We did have to remind him we were on vacation and the goal wasn't to sit in front of a tv watching movies that we had already seen.
My husband and I did 2 classes. Mixology and rum tasting. I'm not a very big drinker-(more on that later) so most of my drinks I just tasted but didn't drink. Mixology was fun but there was a group of about 5 people that were loud and making it hard for the bartender to instruct and explain the drinks. Rum tasting was very informative but drinking rum straight with just a little lime was too strong for me.
We did watch 2 movies. Million Dollar Arm and Sing a long Frozen. I thought Frozen would be packed but there was only about 40 people in the whole theatre.
The only show we went to was Aladdin. It was good but we weren't interested in any of the other productions.
My boys went to the Taylor Mason family show and we caught his adult show in the tube. We did watch quite a few shows in the tube. But seats go fast so be prepared to get there early or sit way in the back.
My 12 year old went to all of the animator classes offered in the D lounge and enjoyed them all. He did bring his own sketch pad and pencils.
We did the 5K on Castaway Cay. It was hot and it isn't an easy run. We passed parents that were expecting their kids to run 3 miles in the heat and that wasn't pretty. Speaking of Castaway Cay we do things a little different. We don't rush out to be there first we had breakfast on the ship after the 5K so around 10. Then we headed to the family beach for snorkeling. At 1:45 we had lunch and took our time walking on the beach. At 3 we rented an Aquatrike. The beach was almost deserted until we headed back to the ship at 4:30. It was perfect.
The new navigator app was awesome! I kept my phone with me in a clutch purse with a wrist strap and the app was very useful. (I also carried a wave phone). The wave phones worked great.
My boys did not spend anytime in the kids club but we were ok with that. Being 12 & 8 we felt comfortable leaving them in the room for short amounts of time.
I did utilize guest services quite a lot. I am pumping for a set of twins that are 5 weeks old and GS was very helpful and accommodating with freezing my BM.
In Cozumel we did the Dolphinaris swim and pull. I booked this directly on their website and save lots of money. We walked to Dolphinaris from the port so we didn't have any transportation costs. It was less than a 15 minute walk. We did buy a CD/DVD. I paid $145 for 13 pictures and the DVD. The DVD is not top quality but the kids enjoy seeing themselves with the dolphins.
In Grand Cayman we did the turtle farm encounter which included snorkeling. I also booked this on the website and saved lots of money. We took the city bus to the TF and a taxi back to the ship. Transportation costs us a total of $22 rt. for our whole family. We have our own snorkel equipment so it makes the experience a lot more enjoyable for the kids. My boys really enjoyed snorkeling at the TF and swimming with the turtles.
I'm sorry this TR was all over the place but I didn't want to leave anything out.
I won't be able to tell you everything we did each day but I will hit the highlights.
After a short drive from Jacksonville we parked at the garage and filed into the terminal. We had a PAT of 10:45 so as soon as we got checked in we waited about 2 minutes and then it was our turn to board.
We hit Cabanas and then the Aquaduck. At 1:30 we went down to deck 8 to check out our room. Once my 8 year old learn there was on demand movies he never wanted to leave the room. We did have to remind him we were on vacation and the goal wasn't to sit in front of a tv watching movies that we had already seen.
My husband and I did 2 classes. Mixology and rum tasting. I'm not a very big drinker-(more on that later) so most of my drinks I just tasted but didn't drink. Mixology was fun but there was a group of about 5 people that were loud and making it hard for the bartender to instruct and explain the drinks. Rum tasting was very informative but drinking rum straight with just a little lime was too strong for me.
We did watch 2 movies. Million Dollar Arm and Sing a long Frozen. I thought Frozen would be packed but there was only about 40 people in the whole theatre.
The only show we went to was Aladdin. It was good but we weren't interested in any of the other productions.
My boys went to the Taylor Mason family show and we caught his adult show in the tube. We did watch quite a few shows in the tube. But seats go fast so be prepared to get there early or sit way in the back.
My 12 year old went to all of the animator classes offered in the D lounge and enjoyed them all. He did bring his own sketch pad and pencils.
We did the 5K on Castaway Cay. It was hot and it isn't an easy run. We passed parents that were expecting their kids to run 3 miles in the heat and that wasn't pretty. Speaking of Castaway Cay we do things a little different. We don't rush out to be there first we had breakfast on the ship after the 5K so around 10. Then we headed to the family beach for snorkeling. At 1:45 we had lunch and took our time walking on the beach. At 3 we rented an Aquatrike. The beach was almost deserted until we headed back to the ship at 4:30. It was perfect.
The new navigator app was awesome! I kept my phone with me in a clutch purse with a wrist strap and the app was very useful. (I also carried a wave phone). The wave phones worked great.
My boys did not spend anytime in the kids club but we were ok with that. Being 12 & 8 we felt comfortable leaving them in the room for short amounts of time.
I did utilize guest services quite a lot. I am pumping for a set of twins that are 5 weeks old and GS was very helpful and accommodating with freezing my BM.
In Cozumel we did the Dolphinaris swim and pull. I booked this directly on their website and save lots of money. We walked to Dolphinaris from the port so we didn't have any transportation costs. It was less than a 15 minute walk. We did buy a CD/DVD. I paid $145 for 13 pictures and the DVD. The DVD is not top quality but the kids enjoy seeing themselves with the dolphins.
In Grand Cayman we did the turtle farm encounter which included snorkeling. I also booked this on the website and saved lots of money. We took the city bus to the TF and a taxi back to the ship. Transportation costs us a total of $22 rt. for our whole family. We have our own snorkel equipment so it makes the experience a lot more enjoyable for the kids. My boys really enjoyed snorkeling at the TF and swimming with the turtles.
I'm sorry this TR was all over the place but I didn't want to leave anything out.
